A funny, romanticized article from http://www.mothersontheverge.blogspot.com/ sparked my interest. It's an imaginary insight into the mind of Trophy Wife from Dubai.
"Sometimes TW wonders what her life would have been like if she hadn't married her husband. She wonders what would happen if she started eating refined carbohydrates again, let her roots grow out and callouses appear on her feet. Then she thinks about the marble floors of her executive villa, her walk-in wardrobe filled with designer labels, the mounds of jewellery in the safe, her son's private education and the azure swimming pool in the garden. And she thinks again."
It’s a very visual quote which allows us to transport ourselves inside a trophy wife. Like size zero culture, there is a strong element about the relation between superficial standards of feminine beauty and social status. The values of materialism always seem to overcome everything else. This trophy wife faces the same problem an exotic dancer has: her lifestyle choices are not long term. What will happen to her when her youth has faded away?
While I am sufficiently confident in myself to reasonably believe that I will never marry a trophy wife (if I marry at all), it is not my place, nor anyone else’s to judge her position. She took life’s lemons and made lemonade, poured right into a gold plated diamond cup. She used her sexuality to forge a future for herself and her children. Simply put, she’s got game. In fact, I almost feel sorry for the fool who married her…
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Size Zero Culture Dating back to Ancient Rome
A fascinating letter to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reveals a unique insight in ancient Rome:
"Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) (c. 190–159 BC) was a Roman comic poet. His 6 surviving comedies are Greek in origin but describe the contemporary Roman society. Eunuchus was probably presented in 161 BC. In this comedy, a young man named Chaerea declares his love for a 16-year-old girl whom he depicts as looking different from other girls and he protests against the contemporary emphasis on thinness: “haud similis uirgost uirginum nostrarum quas matres student demissis umeris esse, uincto pectore, ut gracilae sient. si quaest habitior paullo, pugilem esse aiunt, deducunt cibum; tam etsi bonast natura, reddunt curatura iunceam. itaque ergo amantur.” (She is a girl who doesn’t look like the girls of our day whose mothers strive to make them have sloping shoulders, a squeezed chest so that they look slim. If one is a little plumper, they say she is a boxer and they reduce her diet. Though she is well endowed by nature, this treatment makes her as thin as a bulrush. And men love them for that!)"
I have certainly believed that modern culture was responsible for the influenza of dieting and slimness obsession. Now that we can see such a phenomena existed over 1 000 years ago, it makes one question the origins of such superficial standards. In contemporary times, its easy to see how this subideology is propagated, an overweight woman would never be able to land front page of a magazine, let alone establish a media personality.
It seems even without the pressures of mainstream media, significant cultural pressures still exerted enough influence to cause women to pursue an ideal body image. Sadly, insecurities surpass cultural limits.
"Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) (c. 190–159 BC) was a Roman comic poet. His 6 surviving comedies are Greek in origin but describe the contemporary Roman society. Eunuchus was probably presented in 161 BC. In this comedy, a young man named Chaerea declares his love for a 16-year-old girl whom he depicts as looking different from other girls and he protests against the contemporary emphasis on thinness: “haud similis uirgost uirginum nostrarum quas matres student demissis umeris esse, uincto pectore, ut gracilae sient. si quaest habitior paullo, pugilem esse aiunt, deducunt cibum; tam etsi bonast natura, reddunt curatura iunceam. itaque ergo amantur.” (She is a girl who doesn’t look like the girls of our day whose mothers strive to make them have sloping shoulders, a squeezed chest so that they look slim. If one is a little plumper, they say she is a boxer and they reduce her diet. Though she is well endowed by nature, this treatment makes her as thin as a bulrush. And men love them for that!)"
I have certainly believed that modern culture was responsible for the influenza of dieting and slimness obsession. Now that we can see such a phenomena existed over 1 000 years ago, it makes one question the origins of such superficial standards. In contemporary times, its easy to see how this subideology is propagated, an overweight woman would never be able to land front page of a magazine, let alone establish a media personality.
It seems even without the pressures of mainstream media, significant cultural pressures still exerted enough influence to cause women to pursue an ideal body image. Sadly, insecurities surpass cultural limits.
Journalism is not a Profession
Then why am I spending over $10 000 a year on a university education majoring in journalism?
In the nature of integrity, it’s understandable that my professor would be straight forward with us, and no one is responsible for taking this course except me. But there must be a certain irony in learning on the first day of class that anyone who starts a blog, or has a video camera on their phone, is a journalist.
Interestingly enough, Sam Smith argues that professionalizing journalism would be the death of it. “Journalism has always been a craft - in rare moments- an art - but never a profession. It depends too much on the perception, skill, empathy and honesty of the practitioner rather than on the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills”. I rather like this perspective, because it disregards the conservative status quo and hands power right into the individual’s hand, or rather, his pen.
Nonetheless, it still makes me question my commitment to an education system that seems to contradict itself. Then again, I cannot recall a time when I was impressed by our education system, or at very least even satisfied by it. What is the value in pouring such a significant sum of money into a program that is destined to be obsolete, especially while in the early phases of potentially the world’s worst economic depression?
It’s time to step back and reevaluate my career choices. It’s time for some serious soul searching.
In the nature of integrity, it’s understandable that my professor would be straight forward with us, and no one is responsible for taking this course except me. But there must be a certain irony in learning on the first day of class that anyone who starts a blog, or has a video camera on their phone, is a journalist.
Interestingly enough, Sam Smith argues that professionalizing journalism would be the death of it. “Journalism has always been a craft - in rare moments- an art - but never a profession. It depends too much on the perception, skill, empathy and honesty of the practitioner rather than on the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills”. I rather like this perspective, because it disregards the conservative status quo and hands power right into the individual’s hand, or rather, his pen.
Nonetheless, it still makes me question my commitment to an education system that seems to contradict itself. Then again, I cannot recall a time when I was impressed by our education system, or at very least even satisfied by it. What is the value in pouring such a significant sum of money into a program that is destined to be obsolete, especially while in the early phases of potentially the world’s worst economic depression?
It’s time to step back and reevaluate my career choices. It’s time for some serious soul searching.
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